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Susie Homemaker Does Housekeeping

28 Apr

Well, ladies and gents, I may be the last one jumping on board the Me Made May train but I am officially a passenger now.

‘I, Katrina of the blog Susie Homemaker, MD, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May ’13. I endeavor to wear one item that I have made, mended, or altered each day for the duration of May 2013.’

This will be my first year to participate and I am excited but also nervous that I won’t meet the challenge.  I included the “mended or altered” condition so that I can include items I have had a hand in making wearable in some way.  The way I look at it, before I learned to sew, I would take my clothes to the alteration shop just to have buttons sewn back on (sad, I know), so anything that I have learned to do since I started sewing is going to count for this self-challenge.  I will do my best to post a weekly roundup of outfits (that is another challenge in itself!).

In other housekeeping news, I have been working with a professional organizer to get my house ready to sell/lease.  This means that we got to spend an entire day and a half cleaning out and organizing my sewing room.  Now, I have definitely cleaned and organized my sewing room before without professional help, but it has never been so functional!  I have been so motivated to sew since we did the overhaul so I will have several new pieces to show you during the month of May.

 

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One of the things we added in the sewing room is an open bookcase for storing fabric.  Before, fabric was in boxes on shelves and the floor.  It was impossible to easily see what was in my stash and that made it hard to be motivated.  Now that I can pop into the sewing room whenever the mood strikes and pet my fabric, I find myself cutting out and stitching much more often, rather than just daydreaming about sewing.  Unfortunately all of my fabric doesn’t fit on the bookcase — I have two large plastic bins of knits and one large plastic bin of quilting/decor fabric still on the shelves.

 

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Here’s a shot showing the cute shelves my husband put up for me a little while back.  They run along two walls of my sewing room.  I have the best husband ever!  I will show you more pics of the updated sewing space once I get it tidied up from the sewing marathon that has been taking place.

In final housekeeping news, I am probably also the last person to claim my blog on Bloglovin’.  I have never been a big Google Reader user (I prefer to subscribe to blogs by email), but I know I have Reader followers out there, so I am now claiming my little blog for Bloglovin’.  There you go.

<a href=”http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/4373633/?claim=u26mrvveu4g”>Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

I hope everyone has a great week.  I will do my best to pop back in later this week with a delicious, fresh chicken pasta salad recipe for you :)

My Month in Review

29 Apr

I know I’ve been a very bad blogging friend this month.  I promise I will make it up to you with a really good recipe and sewing pattern review soon.  Here’s a little taste of what I’ve been up to, though…

First, I made my niece, Sarah, a Minnie Mouse cake for her 3rd birthday.  I spent every evening for a week making the components of this two-tier vanilla bean cake with strawberry cheesecake filling, vanilla buttercream frosting, and fondant decorations. 

Then, Mr. Homemaker and I went for a sail aboard one of these little ships on a long weekend getaway.  We were pretty boring — no late-night dance clubs or theater shows — just relaxing on the deck and catching up on lots of rest.  In Cozumel we went scuba diving and saw all sorts of wonderful sea creatures.  The most excitement we experienced on the ship happened one afternoon while relaxing by the pool on the 10th deck.  We heard a loud commotion right around the corner from us so I peeked out our little window just in time to see a grown man’s lower body dangling over the edge of the ship.  Luckily, other passengers had grabbed the jumper and were pulling him back on board.  It was crazy because we had met the man the day before in the elevator and he seemed completely normal.  Not sure what happened to him after that but Matt and I speculated that they must have tied him in a straight-jacket and locked him in his cabin…

The next week my grandfather had surgery to repair a slow-growing aneurysm that his doctor had been following for about two years.  He did phenomenally well and is back at home and feeling much better now.

Finally, I got to take a two-day sewing workshop with world-famous sewing guru, Sandra Betzina, at a sewing shop in Mobile.  It was recommended that workshop attendees sew one of Sandra’s patterns but I had a hard time choosing one that suited me.  Finally, I decided on Vogue 1045 but decided to make it less structured and chose a lightweight Marc Jacobs cotton voile for the top and a silky-finished Vera Wang cotton for the skirt.  I never got around to the skirt during the class but I did finish the top and will be blogging the pattern review soon.  You’re getting a sneak peek of the unfinished top in the photo of me with Sandra, above.

Have a wonderful week, friends!

About me…

23 Jan

I am a full-time pediatrician and manage my own medical practice.  In my “spare” time, I love spending time at home with my family and practicing my domestic skills.  I am best at baking and hostessing but have been dabbling in canning, sewing, gardening, jewelry making, and painting.  Through this blog I hope to share some of my creations and encourage other working women to take up the dying arts of domestication.

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